Cave of Salemas

The Cave of Salemas is a cave in a Cretaceous limestone outcrop near the village of Lousa, in the municipality of Loures in Portugal's Lisbon District [1]. People appear to have used the cave as a temporary refuge during the Upper Paleolithic and as a tomb in the Neolithic [1]. The cave stands roughly 100 metres north of the Neolithic dolmen called the Anta do Alto da Toupeira [1]. A team from the Geological Survey of Portugal excavated the cave in two digs, in November 1959 and from October to December 1960 [1]. Carbon dating placed the human bones and one Paleolithic tooth at around 25,000 to 20,000 years ago [1]. Neolithic materials such as ceramic items came from the top excavated levels together with human bones consistent with a necropolis [1].